December 26, 2016: UK-based Staffordshire University has entered into a partnership with the Rathinavel Subramaniam (RVS) Educational Trust in Coimbatore. As per this agreement, RVS Educational Trust students will progress on to Staffordshire University's MSc in Cloud Computing programme on a 12-month course, where they will complete one semester at RVS and then progress to Staffordshire University. The students will graduate with a Staffordshire University degree.

Mr. Nico Decourt, who is a Senior Lecturer in Information Systems Studies at the School of Computing of Staffordshire University, was recently in Coimbatore where he met Mr. Senthil Ganesh, Managing Trustee of the RVS Educational Trust, for the signing of a Memorandum of Articulation (MoA). To celebrate the partnership, Mr. Decourt also delivered a couple of lectures on Big Data and Cloud Computing during his visit.

Cloud Computing is a growing area to addressing the issues of collaborative working with data stored centrally either in house or externally. Growth in cloud-based applications and in the infrastructure needed to support this is predicted to grow rapidly in the next 5-10 years.

Staffordshire University's MSc Cloud Computing programme focuses on research-informed teaching that has direct value to industry, commerce and to the students.

Owing to the School of Computing' close links with Cisco, students pursuing the programme have an opportunity to gain Cisco certification to CCNP (Cisco Certified Network Professional) standard. As a result of this partnership, RVS Educational Trust students will not only gain international exposure and experience, but will also get benefitted by the skills, industry need and research based pedagogy offered by Staffordshire University.

Expressing his happiness at this partnership, Mr. Nico Decourt said, "This is a truly exciting agreement which will hopefully see the start of a long-lasting collaboration between RVS and Staffordshire University. The progression route we designed together will offer the best of both Indian and British studies and provide a template that can be applied to other courses."

Apart from progression opportunities for RVS Educational Trust students, the MoA also covers provision for exchange in research, with the two institutions having joint programmes in research and development, including exchange of publications and reports.

There will also be opportunities for exchange of faculty staff for the purpose of staff development, planning and handling of academic programmes, organization of seminars and conferences as well as sharing of mutual experiences in teaching, research and industrial practice.

Mr. Senthil Ganesh, Managing Trustee, RVS Educational Trust, said, "RVS Trust is investing in SMAC (Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud) technologies by creating the right partnerships, with industry and academia for training the trainers. This MoA with Staffordshire University for Cloud Computing is a strategic initiative and we are very optimistic that it adds value for students, staff and all RVS stake holders."

Apart from this MoA, the two institutions had also signed an MoU in September 2016 following a couple of Staffordshire University academics' visits to RVS Educational Trust. The MoU set out the relationship between the two institutions and what they were committed to developing.